Baumstark, Anton (1872–1948)
Syriac scholar and liturgist. He studied at Heidelberg, and subsequently held Professorships at Bonn (1921), Nijmegen (1923), Utrecht (1926), and Münster (1930–35). His Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (1922) remains the most detailed and authoritative work on Syriac literature. His main other books on Syriac topics are Lucubrationes Syro-Graecae (1894) [on Sergios of Reshʿayna; Syr. tr. of Geoponika, Lucian, Isocrates, Themistius, Menander], Aristoteles bei den Syrern (1900) [Syriac biographies of Aristotle, Commentaries on Porphyry’s ‘Eisagoge’], Festbrevier und Kirchenjahr der syrischen Jakobiten (1910) [early mss. of Fenqitho; development of the liturgical year], and Nichtevangelische Perikopenordnungen des ersten Jahrtausends (1921) [non-Gospel lections in early mss.]. His Liturgie Comparée (1953; ET Comparative Liturgy, 1958) remains a work of central importance for the study of Eastern Liturgy. Baumstark was also the founder and editor of, and regular contributor to, Oriens Christianus (1901–).
Sources
- R. Baumstark and H. Kaufhold, ‘Anton Baumstarks wissenschaftliches Testament’, OC 82 (1998), 1–52. (= Taft and Winkler, Comparative Liturgy, 61–117)
- R. F. Taft and G. Winkler, Comparative Liturgy fifty years after A. Baumstark (OCA 265; 2001), 31–60. (bibliography of his publications by H.-J. Feulner)